Pavement curb



N.B m ww mm. m Lm Filed Oct. 27, 1954 Patented Mar. 3, 1936 "PAVEMENTCURB Lucien Gaisman, .Audensha.w,z Manchester, E landApplication"ctober'27, 1934, .SerialNo. "150,271 JInGreat'Britain"June"24,"1933 i: 7-: C aims- Modernroad trafficconditionshave made it firstmoulded'andvulcanized in the required bull-A necessary to provide in certain places, road-curbs "which canbe seenreadily-from a'distanceand which offer the maximum visibility in"darkness or in fog, in order. to minimize the possibility of accidents;and which are also so-madeand applied that if an accidentshould'occunthe nature and construction of the'curb (if involved) will"tend'to reducethe eifects of the accident. Instances of such. placesare (a) the islands provided at crossroads in arterial and other roads,and (b) the edges of the adjacent pavements of the crossroads meeting atthose or at other .points.

'The object of this invention is to provide pavement curbspossessing'the necessary visibility, resiliency and strength.

According .to the invention, the curb is made up of side-,by-side unitseach comprising'a-base 'block having on its roadward top corner arubberocap permanently attached thereto, Ithe cap forming'the outer faceof the curb ,ongthe side next the roadway and also beingflush with, andforminga part of, the top face of the pavement; the caps beingyellow,amber, white, or black and yellow, or black and white, or any othersuitable colour or combination of colours, to render the curb easilydistinguishable.

The base blocks may be of concrete, moulded on to the preformed rubbercaps, or may be preformed of concrete, brick or other suitable material,and in all cases the cap will preferably be united to the block byinterlocking undercut segmental projections and recesses, some of whichwill be at the edges and corners.

In the accompanying drawing, which illustrates examples and uses of theinvention:-

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of one form of the side-by-side units, and

Fig. 2 is a like view of another form of unit.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the cap shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a side view, and

Fig. 5 a rear view of the rubber cap shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 6 is a sectional perspective view of a portion of a pavement curbconstructed according to the invention.

In the example illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, the rubber cap ahas an underface b of harder rubber, and anchoring projections 0 also ofharder rubber, shaped and arranged as described in United States PatentNo. 1,560,174 and British Patents Nos. 198,618 and 211,321, 214,433,235,938

and 247,009. In making up the unit, the cap is nosev or other requiredshape of the curb, and such'finished cap is then putinto a moulding boxwith its hard rubber projections upwards, whereuponconcrete,"to,therequired depth, width and 'lengthis cast on toit. The'concrete sets onto the cap, the cap and concrete block thereby being permanently securedtogether and forming the complete composite unit.

In an alternative method ofmaking up the unit, a preformed concreteblock of bull-nose or other required shape,,is first 'made by mouldingor casting theconcrete base block onto a flexible rubber negative, andremoving the negative after :the'concrete hasset andj'the rubber cap(having an underface ofhard rubberand hard rubber gprojections), isthenvulcanize'd on .to it.

"The unitsmay have onlya slight incline on the :roadwardside, asshown inFig. 1,, or. may. have ,a rnore pronounced incline as shown in Fig. 2,or .7

may have no incline at all. The. inclined face ,may .meetjthe verticalfaceatfthe lower edge of g the cap,..( r,lbelowv or above such edge.Further, the base'block'may extend upwards flush with the cap as shownin Fig. 1, or be recessed as shown in Fig. 2, in which case the pavementwill overlie the rear part of the block.

As will be seen from the drawing, the cap on its outer face liessubstantially in planes at angles to each other and joined byintermediate curved portions, the interlocking projections may bearranged as segmental undercut units along the edges of each such planeand as intermediate undercut island projections below the saidintermediate curved portions.

As shown in Fig. 5, there may be additional interlocking projections onthe underface of the cap, in the form of square section ribs in setsarranged at angles to each other, each set comprising a number ofparallel ribs.

The rubber cap will preferably have its outer part of yellow, amber,white or like colour, in whole or for the greater part of its area, andusually all the units in a curb will have their caps so coloured, butcombinations of colour such as black and yellow or black and white maybe employed by differently colouring alternate units or alternate groupsof units. The invention however is not limited to the colouring of allthe caps, as some of the caps in a curb may, at regular intervals, be ofnatural rubber colour, say for ornamental eifect so long as the curb asa whole presents the required ease of visibility.

The improved curbs are not necessarily parts of an artificial pavement,but may be arranged along a grass verge or other roadside area.

In some cases the units may be relatively long, similar to all-concretecur-b blocks now in use, and in such case the expression side-by-sideunits in this specification and in the following claims must be taken toinclude an end-to-end arrangement.

Instead of concrete, other mouldable material can be used, or the capcan be vulcanized on to a preformed base of cast iron or other metal. Ineach case a complete curb unit is obtained, which incorporates a rubbercap, preferably yellow, to the required depth-generally to the roadleve1and which rubber on the top surface can be made to extend into thepavement sufiiciently to form a yellow line at the edge of the pavementfor the guidance of pedestrians. Strength and anchorage are obtained ofsuch an order that no person can pull the cap away from the base unit,nor will the cap, or unit be disturbed by any ordinary wear and tear oftraflic such as glancing blows or direct blows from the wheels ofvehicles.

The invention is not limited to any particular form of anchorage, butthe anchorage will preferably be such as to resist strains in alldirections.

The improved units may be formed with their side faces parallel, orinclined one to the other, according to the required shape (in plan) ofthe pavement along the edge of which they are to be placed.

What I claim is:

1. A composite unit for making a curb, comprising a rigid block recessedacross its whole width at one top corner, the recess extending back fromsuch comer along the top surface of the block and also down one side ofthe block a distance at least equal to the height of the curb above theroadway, but not to the bottom of the block, such recess being providedwith further and segmental undercut recesses along its edges, and someof which are at its corners, and a rubber cap completely filling therecesses to complete the side and top of the block and to form the saidcorner of the curb.

2. A composite unit for making a curb, according to claim 1, wherein therecess and cap have a pronounced curve at the top corner, and the blockhas a further undercut recess on the corner, away from the edges, alsofilled by the cap.

3. A composite unit for making a curb according to claim 1, wherein thefloor of the recess, and

the outer face of the cap, each have fiat portions in more than twoplanes, and wherein there are undercut recesses in the block, filled bythe cap, on each of such fiat portions of the larger recess.

4. A composite unit for making a curb, according to claim 1, wherein thefloor of the recess, and the outer face of the cap, each have flatportions in more than two planes, and wherein there are undercutrecesses in the block, filled by the cap, on each of such fiat portionsof the larger recess, and wherein also the recess and cap have apronounced curve at the top corner, and the block has a further undercutrecess on the corner, away from the edges, also filled by the cap.

5. A composite unit according to claim 1, wherein the block has afurther and right-angled recess at its rear top corner, into which apavement slab may fit.

6. A composite unit for making a curb, according to claim 1, wherein thefloor of the recess, and the outer face of the cap, each have flatportions in more than two planes, and wherein there are undercutrecesses in the block, filled by the cap, on each of such flat portionsof the larger recess, and wherein also the recess and cap have apronounced curve at the top corner, and the block has a further undercutrecess on the comer, away from the edges, also filled by the cap, theblock also having a further and right-angles recess at its rear topcorner, into which a pavement slab may fit.

'7. A composite curb unit according to claim 1 wherein the under face ofthe cap also has parallel sets of square-section ribs arranged at anglesto each other and entering complemental recesses in the block.

LUCIEN GAISMAN.

